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Tony Dejak/Associated Press
If you re an NFL draft viewer, three short phrases likely dominate your living room during Round 1 every year.
1. That s a steal!
2. That s a reach!
3. That s a surprise!
Steals, of course, are players who should have come off the board earlier than they did. Reaches are players in the opposite circumstance. Surprises are, well, surprises sometimes positive, sometimes negative, always unexpected by definition.
With that in mind, let s review the opening round of the 2021 draft through those lenses.
Steal: Atlanta Falcons Select Florida TE Kyle Pitts Fourth Overall
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David Dermer/Associated Press
A tight end is drafted in the top four for the first time in modern NFL history, and we re calling it a steal? Yup, because Kyle Pitts is so much more than a typical tight end. He s arguably the top non-quarterback in this class.
USA TODAY
Outwardly, this draft will project a return to normalcy, the NFL set up with its massive stage contiguous to Cleveland s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Browns FirstEnergy Stadium on the shores of Lake Erie. However the pre-draft process was hardly standard, what with COVID-19 forcing the league to cancel this year s scouting combine on the heels of a season when scouts and team executives had far more limited access to college programs and the prospects whom they evaluate. Should make for an interesting calculus as teams weigh their information over the next three days and decide which players potentially fit their program.
The most intriguing 2022 NFL draft prospects from each Top 25 college football team
play
The best of Spencer Rattler s 2020 season at Oklahoma (1:38)
Check out the best plays from Spencer Rattler s 2020 season with the Oklahoma Sooners. (1:38)
With the NFL draft just days away, the 2021 draft prospects have all been evaluated over and over and the fans have heard the scouting reports . over and over. And while the draft hasn t even happened yet, it s already time to look forward to the 2022 NFL draft.
Our writers came together and picked the top 2022 NFL prospects on each team in Mark Schlabach s Way-Too-Early Top 25 ahead of the 2021 college football seasons.
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